I was going to write something like this a few years ago. This is better than that would have been: thanks for making it.
I have a lot of feelings about this, but they’re mostly the same feelings the story expresses, so there’s not actually much point in me repeating them here.
I guess, good luck out there, everyone.
Oh, I parsed it as a single misaligned AI, which purchased us from the society we had built. It became a more effective market actor than anything else, it reaped the reward, and then it bought us.